Reading List
“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.”
Stephen King may not be the world’s greatest literary genius, but he got it right with this comment. More than this, though, reading regularly is one of the best ways to improve your own vocabulary, knowledge, and understanding of the world you live in. For all the opinions that I hear voiced every day, it pains me that more of my conversations aren’t about books.
In that light, on this page I’ll maintain a list of books that I’m reading or have recently read. I welcome any and all comments on the books listed here, as well as suggestions of any other books or writers that you think I might enjoy. Highlighted titles indicate links to my own reviews on this site.
Currently:
- The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Alexandre Dumas, père
- How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins
In 2009:
- The Terror, Dan Simmons
- Lush Life, Richard Price
- Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
- Getting Things Done, David Allen
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
- Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
- Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra
- Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
- City of Tiny Lights, Patrick Neate
- Daemon, Daniel Suarez
- Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
- Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell
- The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Charlie Huston
- Hater, David Moody
- Beloved, Toni Morrison
- Netherland, Joseph O’Neill
- Neuromancer, William Gibson
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
- The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Tales, H.P. Lovecraft
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
- Infected, Scott Sigler
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- Parasite Eve, Hideaki Sena
- Loop, Koji Suzuki
- Drood, Dan Simmons
- Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
- Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Andersen
- The Body, Hanef Kureishi
- Pygmy, Chuck Palahniuk
- The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood
- Under the Dome, Stephen King
- On Writing Well, William Zinsser
- Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli
In 2008:
- The Zero, Jess Walter
- Omnivore, Piers Anthony
- The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
- Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
- Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006, Brian Greene, ed.
- The Coming Plague, Laurie Garrett
- Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
- Microbe, Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D., and Michael Bellomo
- Moonraker, Ian Fleming
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
- A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas (Richard Pevear, transl.)
- Microcosm, Carl Zimmer
- Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas
- The Dumas Club (nee The Club Dumas), Arturo Perez-Reverte
- That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis
- A Year in the Merde, Stephen Clarke
- Anathem, Neal Stephenson
- Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
- Crime, Irvine Welsh
In 2007:
- World War Z, Max Brooks
- Next, Michael Crichton
- The Ruins, Scott Smith
- DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics, Klaus Janson
- Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson (SUCKED)
- Purity of Blood, Arturo Perez-Reverte
- Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, Gary Owen
- Waiting for Snow in Havana, Carlos Eire
- A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah (GREAT)
- On Writing Well, William Zinsser
- What Is the What, Dave Eggers
- The Abortionist’s Daughter, Elisabeth Hyde
- Carry Me Down, M.J. Hyland
- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
- The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Richard P. Feynman
- A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon
- Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer
- Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, Chuck Palahniuk
- Dune, Frank Herbert
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
- If You Liked School, You’ll Love Work, Irvine Welsh
- The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
- Spook Country, William Gibson
- House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III
- Ideas into Words, Elise Hancock
In 2006:
- Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis
- The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
- The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
- The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Umberto Eco
- The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (AWESOME)
- Thank You For Smoking, Christopher Buckley
- All Tomorrow’s Parties, William Gibson
- Cell, Stephen King
- Company, Max Barry
- The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (STRONG)
- Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Ann Rice (SO DULL)
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke (FUN)
- The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem (PRETENTIOUS)
- The Harmony Silk Factory, Tash Aw
- We the Media, Dan Gillmor
- The Alienist, Caleb Carr
- JPod, Douglas Coupland (PRETTY OK!)
- Londonstani, Gautam Malkani
- Terrorist, John Updike
- Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (POWERFUL)
- The World is Flat (2e), Thomas L. Friedman (OVERRATED)
- Nation of Rebels, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter
- The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, Irvine Welsh
- Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (REALLY GOOD)
- Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, Faïza Guèna
- Adverbs, Daniel Handler
- The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy (AMAZING)
- The Futurist, James P. Othmer
- Making Comics, Scott McCloud
- The Keep, Jennifer Egan
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
- Captain Alatriste, Arturo Perez-Reverte
- The Town That Forgot How to Breathe, Kenneth J. Harvey
- Nick Adams Stories, Ernest Hemmingway
